Monday, May 21, 2012

(Venice, Italy) The Ancient and the Contemporary, the Sacred and the
Profane merge once again in Venice. Today is Ascension Day, the day that
celebrates the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. In Venice,
it is known as the Festa della Sensa; "sensa" is the word "ascension"
in the Venetian language. Whenever Venetians get their hands on a
special day, they like to pack as much power into that day as possible.
So, in the morning there is the traditional Festa della Sensa
celebration, and in the afternoon -- the America's Cup!

Festa della Sensa -- even without the America's Cup in town --
traditionally commemorates two different, important events in Venetian
history. The first took place on May 9, 1000 when Doge Pietro Orseolo II
rescued the Dalmatians from the Slavs.

The second event took place in 1177. Back in those days, the players involved were:

1. The Holy Roman Empire with the German Frederick I Barbarossa (aka Red Beard aka Kaiser Rotbart) as the Emperor.
a) Anti-pope Callixtus III, backed by Red Beard
2. The Republic of Venice, with Sebastiano Ziani as the Doge.
3. Pope Alexander III, backed by the Lombard League

Federico Zuccaro - Barbarossa Pays Homage to Alexander III

Frederick I Barbarossa (Red Beard) was the German Holy Roman Emperor,
and he had his own anti-pope, Callixtus III. Red Beard was going around
conquering everybody, as emperors have a tendency to do. He was
particularly eager to conquer Italy, and was not fond of Pope Alexander
III, who had excommunicated him for his bad behavior. The only force
with any hope to stop Red Beard was the Lombard League, which was backed
by Pope Alexander III. The Battle of Legnano was fought and the Lombard
League won.

Just WHO was God's vicar on Earth? The Pope or the Emperor? That was the
question. It is not easy to get an Emperor and a Pope together in the
same town, but Venice managed to do just that. Pope Alexander III came
to Venice. Red Beard got as far as Chioggia, but was not allowed to land in Venice herself "until
he had set aside his leonine ferocity and put on the gentleness of the
lamb." Barbarossa became lamb-like, and was allowed into Piazza San
Marco, where he found Pope Alexander III surrounded by the Doge, the Patriarch, a host of cardinals and other luminaries. The
Emperor prostrated himself in front of the Pope, and received the kiss of
peace. So, the Treaty, or Peace, of Venice in 1177 is also celebrated during the Festa della Sensa. From Old & Sold:

The astute Venetians extorted valuable
privileges both from the Pope and from the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa
as their reward for the part which they had played in the historic
reconciliation.

During his stay in Venice Alexander III was present at the famous
ceremony which was later known as the wedding of the Adriatic, a rite
which had been inaugurated by the great Doge Pietro Orseolo II, the
conqueror of Dalmatia. As a token of Papal approval of the ceremony the
Pope handed the Doge Sebastiano Ziani a consecrated ring with the words:
"Receive this as a pledge of the sovereignty which you and your
successors shall have in perpetuity over the sea."

For over 600 years this magnificent ceremony was enacted annually.
The Doge, surrounded by the Patriarch of Venice, the great officers of
State, and the foreign ambassadors, embarked on the large gilded barge,
the Bucintoro, and sailed through the Porto di Lido to the open
Adriatic. Here the Patriarch blessed the ring and gave it to the Doge,
who threw it into the sea, pronouncing the time-honoured formula: "Sea,
we wed thee in token of our true and perpetual dominion over thee." The
ceremony only came to an end with the extinction of the Republic in
1797.

Festa della Sensa by Canaletto

Venice began celebrating Festa della Sensa again in 1965. The tradition
continues to this very day when Venice marries her husband, the sea,
except these days it is the mayor who throws a symbolic "ring" into the
sea in the waters off Lido. Then there are traditional regattas, a high
mass at the Church of San Nicolò, and a market on the grounds outside
the church.

Festa della Sensa Today

Meanwhile,
the America's Cup is one of the best things that has happened to Venice
in a long time. Thousands of people are here from all over the world.
The energy is terrific. I think the best way to show you what's going on
is a video from the America's Cup site. This clip is from the French
ENERGY Team, lead by Loick Peyron, who
won the Fleet Racing Championship at the Venice America's Cup World
Series. The Match Racing was won by the Swedish ARTEMIS Racing Team,
while the American ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill widened its lead over
EMIRATES Team New Zealand as the overall leaders in the America's Cup
World Series. The next and final match will be in Newport, Rhode
Island.

“Hosting
the America's Cup is a source of enormous satisfaction for the city –
explained the Mayor Giorgio Orsoni - Here the event will find a setting
that no other locations in the world can offer. The regattas before
Palazzo Ducale in the presence of the famous bell tower of San Marco,
the races in front of the Lido with its art nouveau heritage, and the
Arsenal, which will be the base for the teams and a venue for the
village, are unique places that are at once a source of fascination and
an index of enormous developmental prospects. This historic city, Mestre
and the mainland together comprise a single territorial unit that makes
this area the heart of one the nation's most vital parts."

America's Cup in the Venice Lagoon

Sorting
out the history of the America's Cup, whose rules and regulations morph
throughout the decades, with battles and lawsuits galore, seems more
complicated than the rules governing the Emperor and the Pope. However,
its inception is very clear. From Wikipedia:

In 1851 Commodore John Cox Stevens, a charter member of the fledgling New York Yacht Club
(NYYC), formed a six-person syndicate to build a yacht with intention
of taking her to England and making some money competing in yachting
regattas and match races. The syndicate contracted with pilot-boat
designer George Steers for a 101 ft (30.78 m) schooner, which was christened America and launched on 3 May 1851.

On 22 August 1851, America raced against 15 yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron in the Club's annual 53-nautical-mile (98 km) regatta around the Isle of Wight. America won, finishing 8 minutes ahead of the closest rival. Apocryphally, Queen Victoria, who was watching at the finish line, asked who was second, the famous answer being: "Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second."

The
America's Cup World Series is a new event, founded last year in 2011.
It is a series of regattas, with each team racing the same type of boat.
There are six different international venues for 2011-2012: Cascais,
Portugal; Plymouth, England; San Diego, USA; Naples, Italy; Venice,
Italy and Newport, USA. There is a winner for fleet racing, which is all
the boats racing against each other, and a winner for match racing,
which is only two boats racing against each other. From Wikipedia:

The America's Cup World Series is a series of match race regattas leading up to the 2013 America's Cup.The World Series uses AC45 catamarans, a one-design wingsail catamaran
with foils designed specifically for the event by Mike Drummond and the Oracle Racing engineering team.

Inside Arsenale

It was thrilling to see so many revelers roaming
freely inside the ancient Arsenale, having access to an area which was
once closed and secret, and exciting to learn about all the new projects
that are bringing new life to Venice and its environment. There was wine, and spritzes, and fried Venetian fish on offer, local
products that support the local economy; the atmosphere was festive and
full of life. The Naval Museum threw its doors open, allowing visitors
to learn about the long history that Venice has with the sea. From Wikipedia:

The Winners Inside Arsenale

Venice's wealth and power rested in her ability to control trade in the Mediterranean.
This would not have been possible without an extremely large navy and
merchant force. By 1450, over 3,000 Venetian merchant ships were in
operation, both as supply ships for Venetian merchants and as warships
for the Venetian navy. This amazingly large amount of ships required
constant maintenance and outfitting. The Venetian Arsenal was not only
able to function as a major shipyard, but was also responsible for these
routine maintenance stops that most Venetian galleys required. This
required a large amount of money and the Venetian government spent
almost 10% of its income on the Arsenal. However, this naval power
resulted in the domination of Mediterranean commerce. Venice's leading
families, largely merchants and nobleman, were responsible for creating
some of the grandest palaces and employing some of the most famous
artists ever known. This opulence and wealth would not have been
possible without the naval force constructed by the Arsenal. Indeed with
the creation of the Great Galley and the mass production capacity of
the Arsenal, "the fleets of Venice were the basis for the greatest
commercial power the European world had yet seen.

Tiepolo - Neptune Offering Gifts to Venice

The
Ancient and the Contemporary, the Sacred and the Profane, all come
together in Venice. After 1500 years, the spirit of Venice, and the
spirit of the sea, are still wed together in holy matrimony.

Ciao from Venice,
CatVenetian Cat - The Venice Blog
*NOTE:
This was one of the most difficult posts I've ever written in terms of
technical problems. Photos would not load. Formatting went awry. I was
constantly logged out. Half the time I could not see what I was writing.
I've tried to piece it together as best as I could; please forgive me
if there are errors.This was supposed to have been published yesterday,
Sunday, May 20, 2012.

1 comment:

The Ancient and the Contemporary, the Sacred and the Profane merge once again in Venice. Today is Ascension Day, the day that celebrates the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. In Venice, it is known as the Festa della Sensa; "sensa" is the word "ascension" in the Venetian language. Whenever Venetians get their hands on a special day, they like to pack as much power into that day as possible. So, in the morning there is the traditional Festa della Sensa celebration, and in the afternoon -- the America's Cup!

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About Me

Award-winning author Cat Bauer (HARLEY, LIKE A PERSON; HARLEY'S NINTH - Alfred A. Knopf) has lived in Venice, Italy since 1998. She was a regular contributor to the International Herald Tribune's Italian supplement, Italy Daily, published with Corriere della Sera. Venetian Cat - Venice Blog has been featured in the Financial Times Weekend Magazine, and read in 198 countries & territories, and 160 languages. Cat Bauer is a contributing editor for LUXOS Magazine, the Venice Insider for CNN and Ninemsn, and had more than 13 million views on Google+ until Google stopped counting

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